Immigration News

Immigration Phone Scams

Be aware: There is a telephone scam happening right now in Canada

Fraudsters posing as IRCC (formerly CIC) agents or officials phone up residents who may have or have had dealings with IRCC. For example, if you have an application pending for Permanent or Temporary Residence.

These fraudsters then claim you owe payments to Canadian immigration authorities. Usually they demand a “voucher” payment for around $2,500. They threaten you with deportation and state they will call the police unless you comply with their payment requests.

In the worst situations, they then phone up the nearest police station claiming to be a person living at your address and call in a 911 emergency, requesting that police come immediately. Police will usually respond to these calls with no way to prove they are a fraud, and you may find several squad cars pulling up in your driveway, if you do not follow their payment instructions.

Here is how you should respond

Do NOT pay them any money. IRCC officials NEVER ask for payment over the phone. The only time they might, conceivably, call you is to ask for further information pertaining to a pending application you have with IRCC. And they rarely call. Nearly all correspondence is done through email and snail mail. And they will not ask for basic personal information – like passport number, SIN, bank account numbers, etc. – in such a case.

If you receive any suspicious calls from people who claim to be IRCC officials, ask for the agent’s name, and then call the IRCC Call Centre at: 1-888-242-2100. You then can confirm if the call you received was genuine or a fraud.

If police do arrive, remain calm. Open the door and answer their questions completely and calmly, and explain that someone has recently phoned you and demanded payment over the phone and stated they will send the police if you don’t comply.

Afterwards, report the phone fraud case to:

Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre: 1-888-495-8501

If you have given out personal information by mistake, or want to cancel a payment, call your bank or credit cooperative where you do your banking.

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